Return of public parking charges being phased in at Lincolnshire hospitals

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) has announced that it will phase in the reintroduction of public car parking charges at its hospitals over the coming weeks after teething troubles caused outcry from visitors last month led bosses to abandon the new payment system over the Christmas period.

The Trust teamed up with car parking management specialists ParkingEye to introduce a new automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system at all of its car parks from November 2018.

The Trust says that despite providing better security, additional payment options and improved traffic flow around the hospital sites with the removal of the old barrier system, which caused frequent queuing, the new system experienced technical problems, which the new cameras not always communicating with ticket machines and long queues as visitors struggled to pay for tickets due to a lack of machines, adequate lighting and alleged confusing information.

In response to feedback, the decision was made by the Trust to turn off the new system and offer free parking for members of the public until all of the issues could be resolved.

The Trust has now announced parking charges for members of the public will start again at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, on Tuesday January 8 and at Grantham and District Hospital on Wednesday January 9. Due to a delay in the installation of additional telephone lines to improve the signal between the new ANPR cameras and the pay machines, parking will continue to be free for the public at Lincoln County Hospital until later in the month.

Paul Boocock, Director of Estates and Facilities at ULHT said: “Over the last few weeks we have been working with our car parking provider to improve the signal between the ANPR cameras and the pay machines.

“We have experienced a technical delay at Lincoln County Hospital and we will let people know when we are ready for the parking charges to be reintroduced.

“Most of the additional payment machines have been installed, along with all of the extra lighting and we are still putting up shelters around some of the machines. We will also have additional staff on hand to help when the charges are reintroduced at each site.

“I’d like to thank everyone for their patience and support over the past month and also apologise for any inconvenience it has caused.”

Once the charges are reintroduced, visitors parking at Lincoln, Grantham and Boston hospitals will need to pay at the end of their stay by entering their car registration number at one of the pay machines or by using the good2go website https://www.parkgood2go.com/